Be Freeee!

Well, the Guelph semester abroad has officially come to an end and we are on our own, to do exactly as our yoga instructor told us to - be free! We arrive in Delhi the morning of the 10th and met up with most of our group. We've had a great time exploring India's capital and have slowly been trickling off to our own adventures. Tonight, we went out for dinner then bid farewell to Becca, Shawna, Kim, Lauren and Jamie. Tomorrow morning Kat, Stacie, Julie and i leave on an early train for the North, to Dehradun. We'll be volunteering for 5 days at Navdanya biodiversity and organic agriculture institute, which looks like it will be an unreal experience, so check out their website!

http://www.navdanya.org/home

Canadian Derps take on Northern India

Keoladeo National Park

Tree Fort dinner in Khajuraho

Kama Sutra Carvings

Taj Mahal!

View of Varanasi from the Ganges

Jaisalmer Fort

Rooftop restaurant in Jaisalmer

Camel safari in the Thar Desert

Lake view in Jaisalmer

View of Lake Picholo in Udaipur

Cat and I at the wedding!

Okay, so it’s been…oh, almost 7 weeks since my last blog post – I kind of got preoccupied with life in North India but am once again procrastinating from studying for my finals! So, in the interest of brevity I’m going to divide this post into chronological chunks and talk about the highlights of my time in Northern India.

End of Mysore

The Final week in Mysore was spent cramming for our exams that would complete the first module of the semester and compromise 50% of our final marks. It was a bit stressful, but went well overall. We finished our exams on Feb. 17^th with natural chemistry and celebrated by going out for dinner at Park Lane Hotel. I ordered a corn and spinach bake in an effort to inject some veggies into my system; worst mistake, must stick to my oily curries! We returned to ODP and spent the rest of the evening drinking cheap India whisky and stargazing on the roof and discussing our trip and life and all that. We had our final yoga class, got molded into some more impossible poses then bid farewell to the crazy yoga instructor. Most of us kept our yoga mats and attempted to carry them with us to the North, but trying to squeeze through the narrow compartments on the train with two backpacks and a yoga mat strapped horizontally to the bag was just a bad idea (we had to shove each other just to get through the doorway).

Our last meal at ODP was a really nice goodbye lunch; they prepared an amazing buffet meal, set the tables really nicely (using old bedsheets J) and even had BEER! They had a few chicken dishes which were delicious; I have since decided to take a stab (ha..ha) at being a vegetarian. So far, so good.! Could really go for some bacon though… Anyways, we had a great meal followed by a few thank you/goodbye speeches, then we were off again!

Hyerderabad – Varanasi – Jaipur

After taking the bus to Bangalore and another overnight train, we arrived early on the 19^th in Hyderabad. We had breakfast in the hotel, explored the Daal Bazaar, Chamanar mosque and other parts of the city. Heather and I didn’t take long to find the nearest mall and were thoroughly entertained when a dance show started on the first level and we got to watch from above as a group of dancers performed a routine to ‘Jai Ho.’ We searched high and low…(again, no pun intended), for a restaurant recommended in lonely planet and known to provide hookahs, but to no avail. We settled for a super fancy restaurant for our dinner date and went all out on dinner and drinks instead. I think we spent maybe $10 each on that meal.

The next day (Feb. 20), we explored Golkonda fort, which was soo cool! It was in ruins for the most part but we were allowed to roam around freely and got an amazing view over the city. Unfortunately, cities in India are encased in a constant smog bubble that makes it impossible to have a clear view of anything. I met a guy called Durveesh from Dubai who gave me his phone number and told me to come visit him in Dubai. Escaping that one was a little awkward, but I passed his number along to Erin in case her search for an Indian husband doesn’t work out! After that, we went to the Hyderabad race tracks and watched some horse races; nothing beat the sight of Zack cheering his face off for number 5, then after looking back at his betting card and realizing he’d put money on number 7. For dinner, we all went to an even nicer restaurant than the previous night; it was called the Waterfront and had a dock overlooking the lake and all the fountains; for that evening I didn’t see any sign of India being a developing country.

The next day we left by train for Varanasi. This was the 28 hour train ride from hell that brought us 3,000 km from Southern India up to the North. It was okay the first day, but the second day was boiling hot, and even the wind felt like it was coming from a furnace. It was such a relief to reach Varanasi and definitely worth the travel once we got there!

Varanasi

Varanasi is the oldest city known to have been constantly inhabited by humans, dating back thousands of years and it symbolizes the religious centre of India, so it was a significant stop on our journey through India. After checking in at our hotel and showering, we headed out for dinner at another lonely planet restaurant. We decided to take bicycle rickshaws which were very different from the little yellow auto rickshaws we had gotten accustomed to in Mysore. The next day (Feb. 23), we wandered by foot around the back alley roads and markets of Varanasi. We met the ‘shit’ man there, who took on a whole new marketing tactic. He comes up to us and goes, “Would you like to see my shitty shop? I have all kinds of shit. Yes, I know you saw some shitty shops…and they gave you a good price? Okay, well I give you shit price! Come see my shit!” I was astonished at first but then we all just burst out laughing and the man walked off. We realized he’d just been ‘shitting’ us but it was nice to meet someone with a sense of humour and reminded me to not take things too seriously. It’s only life, after all.

That evening, we took a boat ride down the Ganges, which was phenomenal! The Ganges is a sacred river to Indians and is a pilgrimage destination as well as a cremation site, and the water from the Ganges is holy water considered to have curative properties. We got to watch from the boat as the nightly Aarthi ceremony was performed (using many lights and candles) to celebrate Mother Ganga. It was amazing to see this ritual which had been taking place for so long; our guide told us his mother had been attending the ceremony daily for 70 years!

The next morning we dragged our sorry asses out of bed at 5 am and went for another boat ride on the Ganges to watch the sun rise and then we visited the Golden Temple (dedicated to Shiva). After breakfast in the hotel, we visited a few temples including a Jain temple. We also visited the Sarnath, which is where Lord Buddha recited his first sermon. After lunch we went to another temple near Hyderabad University, which was the most impressive in size and architecture. That evening and the next day, I spent some time relaxing in the hotel and hand washing laundry before our overnight train to Jaipur (Feb. 25).

Jaipur and host family

On February 26^th in the morning, we arrived in Jaipur and went to Kanodia College which was where our lecture hall was being rented for the month. Jaipur is cleaner than any other city we’d visited and I was shocked to see well-paved and WIDE roads, which middle dividers and lanes, and way more cars than I was used to seeing. We were greeted by the co-ordinators and the host families. I was paired with Catherine for our homestay which was lucky because we get along great and have a lot in common. Our host family is the Dubes and consists of an older couple (the husband is a retired history professor), and they share a house with their daughter-in-law (Sarubi) and her two young children. The boy (Chinmay) is 10 and the girl (Divyanesh; aka Chotti which means the youngest) is 2 years old. Sarubi’s husband and the Dubes’ son is called Abishek and has been working for the past 6 months in Ahmedabad.

Staying with them has been amazing and although it took a day or two to get used to things, they were extremely welcoming. It was also such a nice surprise to have young kids in the house; they really liven up the atmosphere and were a lot of fun to play with. Chinmay’s English was almost perfect and Chotti was like a sponge, repeating anything we would say, in English or even in French. Cat and I became really close with Sarubi, who is about 35 but looks way younger; she really took us under her wing and taught us so much during our stay here.

The Dubes are a Brahmin family and seem to be upper-middle-class. They have a car and live in a gated community in a 3 storey white house. The house is not very big but has air conditioning and is really nicely furnished and decorated. They have several helpers who do cooking, cleaning, dishes, sweeping and laundry. The room Cat and I share is on the upper floor and has its own door which is also nice; inside is a closet, two beds, a desk, a small bathroom and a small patio overlooking the street. The food is delicious and they have been really good about not force-feeding us too too much. For breakfast we get toast with papaya, banana, porridge and chai tea…we couldn’t have asked for better accommodations!

Our first week of classes was not overly eventful, but there were a few highlights. Because we’re living with a family, we take a rickshaw to school and home every day which is pretty fun. One driver has latched onto our routine and parks at the end of our street every morning, so we’ve become a regular customer for him. The first week, the co-coordinators got wi-fi set up for us in our the lecture hall and lounge, which was great for all of us and especially for all the people in our group who were not having luck with their internet sticks. On one of the first nights, our English literature prof recommended a free dance show at the local theatre, and we were SO pleasantly surprised to discover is was a group of male American dancers doing contemporary dance and hip hop to popular songs. So there we were, ten white Canadian girls sitting in the front row cheering and whistling and taking pictures of these guys dancing on stage..excellent!

We found a small market/shopping area about 1 km away from the college and it became a daily tradition to walk there during our lunch break for fruit, ice cream or any other necessities! A couple times I forfeited my ice cream to a street kid instead of giving him or her money; it’s hard to know what to do about all the poverty we see around us, but when the children are clearly hungry it’s easy enough to give them leftover lunch food or snacks. I quickly learned not to give them any unopened fruit or packaged food though because they won’t eat it but will try to sell it. The first time I went to rip open a bag of chips for a little boy he started yelling and tried to stop me from opening it.

Jaisalmer – Jodhpur – Udaipur

On the Friday after our first week of classes (March 2), we took an overnight train the Jaisalmer, where we began a week of travel to major cities in Rajasthan. Jaisalmer is a desert town with a lot of tourists due to its huge fort which is still inhabited by 2,000 people and has many narrow cobblestone paths lined with shops, cafes, restaurants, jewellery boutiques and hostels. We spent most of our time on March 3 and 4^th exploring the fort and for some people, doing some major shopping. Pashmina scarves, silver rings and handmade blankets were the most common purchases. I steeled myself against almost all temptation…almost. I couldn’t resist a wooden elephant carving about the size of my head. His name’s Babar and he’s going to live on my shelf at home. We found another really nice rooftop restaurant the first night and I went with a smaller group for dinner and drinks there. We watched the sun set over the fort and surrounding desert and definitely all agreed that life was pretty much perfect at that moment.

The next day we took a short bus ride out into the desert where we went on a camel safari!!! That was a pretty cool experience and I realized just how awesome camels are... they have really interesting faces! Except when the safari ended and we all climbed off, I made the mistake of standing downwind and I got a bit peed on by one of the camels. That night we stayed at a desert camp in Swiss tents. There was a huge campfire followed by some cultural dances where we all wound up joining in at the end and it almost felt like being at camp. But, sleeping in the desert in Swiss tents was nowhere near as glamorous as I’d expected (maybe Sex and the City 2 was not a good indication of desert realities)? I woke up with a sand dune in my belly button as well as everywhere else. It was an exfoliating experience.

The next day (March 5) we returned to Jaisalmer and promptly went to our favourite German Bakery from some legit coffee and baked goods. After double fisting croissants and cakes, Cat, Abby and I went to the small manmade lake in Jaisalmer and rented a pedal boat. After dicking around there for a bit, we found a small temple by the lake and relaxed there for a bit to escape the heat.

The next day was spent mostly on the bus to Jodhpur. Devon, after bragging to everyone about her stomach of steel, finally bit the dust and joined the sick club (sorry Devon! :P). Jodhpur also has a huge fort (they are common in the North due to a history of invasion by the Mughals and others). We spent a few hours exploring Mehrangarh fort (1459 A.D.), and got an audio tour which was really helpful. We then returned to the hotel where I called it a day at about 8pm. Overall, we saw basically none of Jodhpur except the fort and a really nice view of the “blue city” (known for its blue painted buildings), so I wish we’d had an extra day but nevermind.

Early on the 7^th we departed for Udaipur, which again took the better part of the day. Udaipur was sweet. We found a really nice rooftop restaurant (of course) overlooking Lake Picholo (which I lost money on a bet that it was natural and not manmade…I haven’t found many natural lakes in India). That was the first night of Holi, which is a big festival in India where people throw brightly coloured dyes at each other and have giant bonfires and basically live it up. We got to watch fireworks and saw some bonfires on our way back to the hotel. The next day we were under hotel arrest until late afternoon to avoid the Holi festivities; it’s often unsafe for tourists and we were told that the dyes used have strong and often really harmful chemicals in them. That was a bit of a downer but I guess safety first.

Our last day in Udaipur we went to Udaipur Palace and got another audio tour, as well as a boat ride in Lake Picholo, where we really got a taste of safety in India when they made us where bright orange PFDs. Fun fact: there is a really fancy hotel in the middle of the lake where one of the James Bond (Octapussy) movies was filmed. We once again sniffed out the best coffee shop in Udaipur and hit the jackpot because they also had REAL chocolate cake. In India it’s really hard to find things other than Indian sweets (which are really just cavity catalysts). There’s a shortage on good coffee, chocolate, cookies, cakes, pies…all that important stuff. That night (March 9^th), we took our final night train back to Jaipur and returned home to our host families. Good to be home, and our host family told Cat and I they missed us.

Jaipur Highlights

After sleeping a few more hours, Cat and I met up with the rest of the group and we visited Amber Fort in Jaipur; the older one was really impressive and had elephants which would carry tourists up to the front entrance from the lower ground level. We visited the newer fort as well, got ice cream and then got stuck in Jaipur traffic for over an hour heading back home.

That night (March 10), Cat and I were lucky enough to accompany the Dubes to a wedding (an arranged marriage). It was our host father’s niece’s husband’s sister’s daughter’s wedding (good luck working that one out). The previous week, Sarubi had taken Cat and I Saree shopping so we were both decked out in proper Indian sarees. Cat opted for a royal blue heavy silk saree and I went for a thinner material with multicoloured patterns and silver embroidery. I felt like a bird of paradise, but it was amazing! The wedding was really elaborate and was held on a large terrace with lots of white lighting, tons of food, and everyone decked to the nines. I made a slight oversight on the jewelery though and wasn’t wearing a necklace or any bangles (just simple earrings). An older friend of our host mother came up to me and asked me where my gold was, where were my bangles and what were these black things on my wrists (my black hair ties). Oops. She decided to bejewel me and proceeded to remove her bangles and attempt to ram them onto my hands. That didn’t work so well and she abandoned her attempt at my knuckles but the lesson was learned; don’t go to an Indian wedding without at least a pound of jewellery on your person!

Then, there was the food. The terrace was arranged with booth-like structures around the perimeter and each offering a different type of food. Sarubi took us around to each section and got us to try just about everything. We got these thin papery balls that were cracked open and stuffed with some kind of potato mix then dipped in water. Choking those back was quite the feat, but some of the other food was amazing! We got to see some of the wedding proceedings but left before more of the official stuff because that would go on until 2 or 3 in the morning. That night, I was sicker than ever before! I must have got some kind of food poisoning at the wedding, but it knocked me right on my ass and sent me scrambling for my unused packets of gastrolyte and immodium. Spent a couple days in bed then was back to normal, though I’m a little more cautious with the food now. I also learned that meshy fabric bags are NOT condusive to holding puke, just for future reference – always go for the plastic!

That week, I went with Sarubi to the park just around the corner. It’s really just a small field with a playground at one end, open space in the middle and a small walking track around the perimeter. The kids love it there and going to the park with them became a bit of a ritual after that. I also started going for walks there as there aren’t many places to just walk around on my own nearby. Heather and I also went to get haircuts. We found a women’s hair salon that wasn’t much different than a first choice back home, but the hair dressers were SO aggressive! After vigorously washing and towel drying and combing out my hair, the women held up her comb full of my ripped out hair and looked at me solemnly, saying “Hair fall.” Yeah, no shit. Anyways, she got the job done well enough and it cost about $10.

On March 14^th we had a little surprise birthday party for one of our profs, Cynthia. After class we had a table set up with drinks and cake and samosas. I wore my saree to school that day (Sarubi had to help me wrap/tie/pin it on properly), but everyone loved it! We had a couple more days of class, then on Friday after classes, Abby, Julie and I went to the McDonald’s in Gaurav Tower and got McFlurrys. Cat and I watched an amazing Sharu Khan Bollywood movie that night and packed for Khajuraho.

Khajuraho weekend

On March 17^th, we boarded the bus for Agra and spent St. Patty’s day bumping along ‘roads’ blocked by massive potholes, other vehicles and construction equipment. The trip took a grueling 17 hours and by the end of it we were all drinking whisky and blasting the Chieftains, realizing that was about as much of a party as we were going to get that day. Still, it wasn’t that bad. We arrived after midnight, checked our drunken selves in and slept in Sunday morning.

We had an amazing buffet breakfast at the hotel and then headed out to visit the Western Group of temples, which are a world heritage site and are known for their elaborate Kama Sutra-inspired carvings. We got an audio tour of the temples, which were really impressive and indeed showcased some pretty shocking/explicit stuff. After that, we stopped at a Lonely Planet-recommended café, then headed back to the hotel (about a km walk down the main road) to escape the sun.

That afternoon we mostly hung out at the hotel, having discovered a SWIMMING POOL out back! That was such a great surprise and a first in India. It was so much fun just to hang out outside, Agra is a smaller town without the noise and pollution of the city, so it was much more quiet and peaceful. We had a happy hour by the pool then went to an Italian restaurant for some pizza. An incredible day.

The next morning we had the same buffet breakfast and swam in the pool for a bit before heading out to see a group of Jain temples. We met a 17-year-old boy called Babu, who guided us through the old village section of the city, which was much more rustic and housed most of the locals. I was shocked when he showed us a small line in the road, like a speed bump, and informed us that it was the dividing line between a higher and lower caste; we had been told that caste segregation didn’t occur anymore but it’s certainly not always the case, especially in more rural areas.

We had lunch at Raj Café, then visited a few shops, where we had chai with some shopkeepers. It was interesting to meet one younger man who had travelled all over Europe and most of Asia, had spent time studying in Spain and France and still always returned home to run his business. He told us that India was where he belonged and it was his duty to remain in his home and to be near his family.

That night for dinner, we ate in a tree fort. It was an extension of an actual restaurant but there was a little bridge leading to a giant tree which had a platform perched in the middle with a table and chairs. Of course, halfway through dinner the power went out; so, we ate dinner in the dark in a tree fort and it was totally awesome. The next day, we braved the same 17-hour journey back to Jaipur and to our host families.

Agra weekend

After 3 days of classes and another bout of sickness, a bunch of us went to Crystal Mall on the opening night of Hunger Games. We bought tickets and popcorn for $4 and were just about the only people in the theatre, but the movie was really good (even though I only read half the book last summer).

On the 24^th, we headed for Agra (the city home to the Taj Mahal); this bus ride was much more bearable and we made a stop at a fort near Agra for a guided tour. We got to Agra late in the afternoon and proceeded to the nearest rooftop restaurant for dinner. The next morning we left the hotel at 6 am to get to the Taj Mahal early. It was really cool to see in real life and definitely lived up to its reputation! The pathway leading up to the palace seemed shorter in real life but it was so beautiful. I was surprised to see a flowery pattern accenting the archways of the palace; it looked just like my bedspread at home and was so pretty!

The next morning we left Agra and stopped on our way back at Keoladeo National Park and bird sanctuary. We rented bikes and got a guided tour of the park, where we saw jackals, antelope, ferrets, as well as the tallest bird on Earth (140 cm high with a wingspan of 3 meters). It was a crane and our tour guide played a bird call from his cell phone which prompted a bunch of them to take off. After a couple hours of biking around we had lunch at a tourist stop along the highway (which meant mediocre food for astronomical prices) and returned to Jaipur once again for our last few days of classes.

I’ll leave it at that for now as this is way too long already. It’s now April 1^st and we’ve got only 8 days left until the semester is over! More to come in later days…

Online Columns!

http://atguelph.uoguelph.ca/2012/02/guelph-students-explore-india/

http://www.thecannon.ca/page.php?id=22&v=8005

Rediscovering the Ruins - Hampi

The bamboo basket boat ride

The Lotus Mahal

Getting ready to gun `er

Mango Tree restaurant overlooking the river

I can't believe how fast the time has passed, but here we are on our last week in Mysore. We finished classes last Thursday and this week is dedicated to exams, which started today. On Saturday we leave for Varanasi and several other stops as we make our way North to Jaipur. I'm looking forward to our stay in the North since we'll be paired with host families for the duration of our time there. Though it makes me a little nervous and uncomfortable to be going to live with complete strangers, I know it'll be the best way to experience Indian culture first-hand and get a real taste for what living in India means.

I guess I will pick up where I last left off. Last weekend we had Sunday off, which was a welcome break from all the rigidity and structure of our daily activities. A solid sleep-in was badly needed, followed by a real Canadian-like breakfast of apple cinnamon oatmeal (so glad I brought a few of those along). A bunch of us went out to Savoury, the restaurant by the department store for lunch, and reviewed our natural chemicals homework. At night we all took rickshaws to Mysore Palace to see it lit up - they have the whole palace strung up with white lights and it looked so amazing! For dinner we went to dominos for some corn and chicken pizza, which seemed to have become a tradition.

Our final week of classes was much like the two prior ones; yoga in the mornings, class all day with a tea break in the a.m and p.m, and a  non-negotiable curfew of 9pm (at which point the gates are locked and guard dogs released). Monday we went downtown after class for a bit to hang out at India's cheaper version of Starbucks - Cafe Coffee Day. Coffee isn't as popular here, not with all the chai and masala tea, so finding good coffee for 25 cents was a huge score!

Tuesday was the Indian version of a snow day. But it wasn't snow preventing us from being able to have class - it was monkeys! During our afternoon tea break, while we were down the hall from our classroom, a bunch of cheeky monkeys came into the hallway and started rummaging through a garbage bin that had been left out. They were emptying cookie wrappers, polishing off unfinished juice boxes and dumping shit everywhere. Since they were between us and the door to our classroom, we couldn't get in and most of us didn't feel bold enough to confront them, except Chris (our beloved prof/savior), who grabs a chair and heads towards the monkeys. The one monkey starts hissing at Chris and creeps towards him, so Chris retreats. Out comes  one of the ground maintenance guys brandishing a pellet gun while we all clap and cheer. The monkeys were instantly gone but not before a few pellets were fired; overall, a much more entertaining 20 minutes than if we'd been in our econ lecture that whole time.

Wednesday was Lauren's birthday, so most of us went to this nice restaurant at Parklane Hotel for dinner. After a few lost in translations, we managed to explain to the server that we wanted them to bring her a cake after dinner and preferably sing to her, which they finally did (to our delight)! Thursday we had our last classes and were given way too much information about the contents of our exams (I don't think any of our Indian profs believe in formal evaluation of any sort), and spent the afternoon at Savoury, studying and drinking lassis. I think at first the staff there were confused about why we'd all show up with notes and laptops and study there... our server kept coming to check on us and ask for orders, but I think they've gotten used to us going there to study - it's our closest thing to a library and some quiet/air conditioning.

We didn't have any classes on Friday except for a final review session for natural chemicals. In the afternoon we all boarded a bus to head to Bangalore for our night train to Hampi, and shortly after experienced our first motorbike/bus/SUV crash. I'm not sure what happened at the front of the bus but one moment I was asleep across three of the backseats in the bus and the next I was on the floor. Luckily the bus managed to basically stop before colliding with the motorbike so no damage was done to the riders. The motorbike was pretty twisted up though as was the jeep/suv-type vehicle that rear-ended the bus because of its abrupt stop. This all caused quite a scene and delayed us for awhile but thankfully nobody was injured.

We took the night train to Hampi and got to the Gopi guest house in time for breakfast. Hampi is a collection of ancient temples, with hundreds of structures spanning over 20 km2. It's the biggest UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the coolest landscapes I've ever seen. It kind of looks like a desert and reminds me of the Southwestern states, but there are piles of huuuge boulders that look like they  just dropped from the sky and form small mountains. There's a big river that winds through Hampi and creates a really lush green oasis amid the red rocks and dirt.

There's also a really colourful bazaar which is set along this road lined with temples and served the same purpose 500 years ago. It cropped up in the late 1990's as a result of a tourism boom to the area. Unfortunately, our guide informed us that the next day they were starting an eviction process to remove the vendors and local inhabitants from that area in the interest of preserving the site. Most of us received this news with mixed feelings. I guess there is a balance of preserving valuable elements from our past and allowing life to continue while looking to the future but how do you draw the line between historical preservation and the rights of living people?

Anyways, we took a guided tour for most of Saturday; our tour guide was an Indian man with a thick accent AND a lisp, who referred to Chris as "captain," which was amusing to everyone but him. He showed us around the temples and ruins and brought us down to the river, where we got to ride in these round bamboo basket boats. I convinced the boy who we hired to paddle us to let me paddle, but it wasn't nearly as water-dynamic as a canoe and the novelty wore off quick enough. We stopped for a Thali lunch and then visited the royal palace, including the queen's bath, King's balance (a system of weighting) and the Lotus Mahal - all structures we learned about in our Culture and Civilization classes.  Most of us had mild heat exhaustion by mid-afternoon, so we headed back to the Gopi Guest House to recuperate, and I got a really delicious mushroom and cheese pasta for dinner on the rooftop restaurant.

Sunday, me and some of the other brave kids on this trip rented motorbikes for the day. That was the best $10 I've spent so far in India, though I was sort of surprised at the lack of formalities (no helmets, no deposit, no legal waivers, no insurance or licensing, just $10 for a bike and gas). I was a bit shaky at first but once I got the hang of riding I was flying - such a rush! We hit the road early to avoid congestion, and headed down the main road out of Hampi and into the countryside. The scenery was amazing! Huge boulders and cliffs with bright green rice paddies along the roadside as well as irrigation canals. It was a fantastic way to see Hampi, so much freedom and definitely more authentic than looking out the window of a tour bus. The looks we got from locals made it even better. Chris wore these huge goggle-like sunglasses and tied a rag over his head like a turban; and combined with his bright yellow tshirt and neck-breaking speeds, he looked pretty much insane.

For lunch we went to this outdoor restaurant called Mango Tree with an incredible view of the river. It was basically several levels of terracing done with stones to create comfortable sitting areas for groups of people to eat off of little tables they'd bring out. It was a really cool idea and we weren't the only ones who thought so - the place was teeming with grungy european hippies, but we fit in just fine. I was pretty light headed and wind-whipped from the biking/sun, so the tomato cheese sandwich was fantastic.

A few of us did some shopping in the afternoon before heading back to the train station. As per usual, we got the the station about two hours early and a few people formed a circle on the platform and started up a game of euchre. Within 5 minutes there was a crowd of about 15 people gathered around them to watch, then one of the station managers ushered us to a private air-conditioned waiting room. I'm not sure why but I'm guessing we were probably in the way...anyway, it was alright! After a long night on the train (I decided to forego the gravol this time) and a long bus ride in the morning, we made it back to Mysore yesterday around lunchtime. Now it's study, study, study for the rest of the week! After all, this is a 'UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH SEMESTER ABROAD' - We don't mess around!

Can't Type with Hands Full of Chapatti!

Chilling on the rooftop of our building

Pizza Hut - Corn and chicken pizza!

Rooftop restaurant downtown Mysore

Rocking the bindis for good luck - Chamundi Hills

It’s been a week and a half since the nomadic tourists from UofG swarmed into Mysore from their whirlwind adventures across Southern India. We settled right in to a Catholic missionary called the Organization for Development of People just on the outskirts of town. It is like a gated sanctuary from the dirt, dust and pollution of the streets. It’s all green; potted plants and flowers everywhere, trees, a veranda and….about 5 daily calls to prayer, sufficiently loud and starting at 5:45 a.m. The first morning we were rudely awoken by this long, out-of-tune drone of some sort..I thought I would get used to it but that’s yet to happen and I start pretty much every day diving deeper under my pillow and cursing the call to prayer – seriously, why can’t a watch suffice?

Anyways, enough about that. Mysore is fantastic – it’s a much cleaner city than some of the others we visited in January (Chennai…), and there’s so much to do and see – so many cool markets and stores, a huge palace at the town center, a zoo, great restaurants and a department/grocery store (about 100 metres down the street for which the 25 of us are likely generating twice their regular profits). The center here hosts conferences and groups of people, who come and go. This week they were hosting an agricultural conference, so Abby and I were chatting with some of the farmers over dinner. Mostly, they just wanted to try her peanut butter, which they’d never had before. With the grocery store so close, most of us have acquired peanut butter and/or nutella and have found various combinations of spread+banana+ carb product to supplement the pretty bland menu here. Our prof Cynthia somehow persuaded the cooks to switch from spicy Indian breakfasts consisting of curries and idli (rice patty things), to ‘continental’ breakfasts consisting of white bread, peanut butter and jams, and fruit.

Late last week I did a full load of laundry, washed by hand until my hands were raw, with all the bright colours from my new Indian clothes leaching into the water and turning everything I had left that was somewhat white…into a weird blueish/purplish mess. The gardener didn’t like me hanging my weirdly coloured clothes on the railings outside our room and directed me to the rooftop patio – what a discovery that was! This patio wraps around the building in a huge circle, with no floor in the middle but a sweet view over the inner courtyard, the rest of the compound and everything else out there. I now go up there every day to read and take in the view, and we’ve relocated our morning yoga class to the rooftop as well – sun salutations are so much more authentic when we can actually see the sun!

Last Friday was our first yoga class and our instructor is this hardcore yogi who likes to do a lot of humming and chanting, and has this terrifyingly evil cackle of a laugh. He laughs especially hard as he goes around the class ‘adjusting’ people into the correct position; he tends to prey mostly on the guys, who generally crumple to the ground once released from his clutches. But, overall it’s a good class and the most exercise we get between our carb-heavy meals and sedentary days sitting in the classroom.

After class last Friday a bunch of our went out to Pizza Hut for dinner – yes, a Pizza Hut, and right across from it was a Dominos, which made our decision hard. We went for the Pizza Hut because it was on the same side of the street as us, which is a huge factor here, where crossing the street is a life-or-death situation every time. I ordered Corn and Chicken pizza, and loved every bite. That night a bunch of us gathered back in the classroom and set up the projector to watch Bride and Prejudice with newfound appreciation. It was a solid West-meets-East night.

Last Saturday was a jam-packed day. We took a long bus ride to visit Vivekananda Youth Movement; an NGO which has founded a Montessori tribal school, as well as an Ayurvedic health clinic. The school was being run incredible it seemed, and they were producing remarkable academic results. After, we got a tour around a nearby hospital which had been started up by another group of people, and the director has spent his lifetime working to help gain funding and awareness. It was amazing to see all the good, honest and charitable work being done in India by such hard-working people with a genuine desire to make their country a better place. I think everyone in the group was humbled and inspired.

This week was much the same as the previous week, with lots of lectures and 4 yoga classes, lots of peanut butter and chapatti with bananas, and several trips to the nearby department store (I get a pineapple there almost every day and cut it up and eat the whole thing – delicious). I also picked up some pieces of silk at the market last weekend to get tailored into headbands; they let me have the fabric for free (could have had to do with the fact that the guy at the checkout was in the midst of asking Lauren on a date and had plied her with free fabric). I got prescription glasses and sunglasses here (they’re about $60 each) and am still completely in love with the inexpensiveness of India. It’s going to be such a shock coming home…. “You want me to pay HOW MUCH for this dinner and beer!?” Or trying to bargain it down… “Joke price!” as the rickshaw drivers like to tell us when we don’t offer them enough rupees.

Last night we celebrated another week of classes (well, it was our second week anyway), by heading downtown to a rooftop restaurant with an incredible view overlooking the plaza. We all got King Fishers (the popular beer here) and spent most of the evening just hanging out and chatting about our trip so far. We joked about how fat we’re all getting and how far behind we all are on our journaling/blogging (at which point someone made the very valid point that we ‘can’t type with hands full of chapatti’). So true; and that was another solid Friday in Mysore.

Today was much like our busy Saturday last weekend, but I really enjoy having such cool and relevant activities and NGO visits incorporated into our itinerary. We visited a rotary school for the hearing impaired; their primary focus was on integrating the mothers into the child’s education by having her attend school with the child, and after hearing a four-year-old girl read in in English (her second language), I was amazed. We visited another, smaller NGO which was a parent’s association which runs a small school for special children. Before our trip we all made donations and did some fundraising to help these NGO’s out, so we will be distributing this money to these organizations as we see fit (basically a combination of who needs it the most, and who will the funds most effectively).

This afternoon we visited a sultan palace and museum, then drove up to Chamundi hills, with incredible views overlooking Mysore. We decided to get ambitious and hike down the 2000-or-something stairs and have the bus meet us at the bottom. The stairs are all sporadically spaced in height and distance apart, so we had some slips and seriously shaky legs by the time we reached the bottom, but it totally worthwhile cause we got to see some cool temples on the way down and a LOT of monkeys.

Anyways, that concludes the excitement of the past couple weeks. Tomorrow we are visiting Mysore Palace at night, apparently it’s even MORE impressive all lit up in the dark, and then we going out all together for dinner which should be good, since we usually break off into smaller groups. That’s it for now, time for some chai tea and Chapatttiiii! Ciao!

Pictures

Trekking in the Rainforest of the Western Ghats

Temple of Shiva near Turtle Bay

Sunset at Turtle Bay

Fishing boats in Kanyakumari

Children from local fishing village near Turtle Bay

Full Indian Thali lunch

Turtle Bay and The Rainforest Retreat

On Friday the 13^th we caught a night train from Kochin to Kundapur, and from there we took a bus to Turtle Bay Beach Resort, where we spent the following 3 days and nights living it up in the Ayur village. It was really just a small collection of huts and buildings with hammocks strewn about and a small bar with an outdoor area for eating. Fifteen of us lived in the yoga studio, sleeping on thin mattresses laid out side by side on the ground with an outdoor shower house across the path – it was simple but wonderful and we didn’t mind the extra company of ants, geckos and sand! The resort was set between a rural area and a small fishing village, and boasted a modest yet incredibly beautiful, travel-brochure-worthy stretch of sandy white beach with protruding volcanic rocks and billowing palm and coconut trees. We arrived early on Saturday and the sun was just rising over the trees; with the sight of this pristine beach and ocean, we regained the strength and energy lost on the train and headed right for the water to dip our feet in the Arabian Sea.

The next three days were like a dream; I had to keep reminding myself that I was on a semester abroad and not on an all-inclusive vacation, but that’s how it felt! That entire first day we spent soaking up the sun, lounging in hammocks and swimming in the ocean…there were some sunburns! It’s so ironic that all we want in the West is to have that summer glow all year round, and here they have drugstores filled with “whitening” body lotions and skin creams and the women walk around holding umbrellas to avoid darkened skin. Come on people!

The second day we got a visit from a local NGO that was focusing on building toilets in the neighbouring community to prevent people from defecating on the beach, previously a huge issue since there was nowhere else to go and the tides usually swept it away. It was really interesting to learn about what they were doing and later that day I walked along the beach; sure enough, there was poop, just not on the resort’s stretch of real estate. As a group, we decided to donate enough money for them to construct another toilet. The fewer poops on that beach, the better. We also got to visit the local village and meet some children…they were so curious and absolutely loved being in the photos and seeing them appear immediately on our cameras.  We got back to the resort in time to watch the sun vanish over the horizon…we ate dinner and sat around the pavilion drinking beer and chatting. One of our profs got a little too into the booze which was a riot.

Monday a bunch of us went snorkelling, which was a long trip to get out there (hour long bus ride to another beach and another hour on a small motor boat). By the time we made it out to the island most of us were sick from the bus or boat ride or both, and those who weren’t sick were so doped up on gravol we spent half the time passed out on the boat… but we managed to get some decent snorkelling in anyways! The beach we left from was a common pilgrimage site and has the biggest Shiva statue/temple in the world (Shiva is the god of destruction), so that was pretty cool. We spent the last night in Turtle Bay doing pretty much the same thing as the previous night, but took the party onto the beach where we sat around a huge bonfire and stargazed.

On the morning of the 17^th we departed for the Rainforest Retreat in the Western Ghats near Madikeri. That bus looked like it was from the 60s (even though Chris had requested a ‘deluxe coach’), and we had to stop a couple times for mysterious mechanical difficulties. It took us 13 hours to get there but at least we did! As usual, there was the difficulty of finding toilets while we were on the road (nevermind trying to decipher confusing and often false directions to toilets); by now most of us have learned not to avoid drinking water on travel days but a bunch of us still wound up in some remote village squatting to pee in a back alley and asking if anyone has toilet paper?!

It was all SO worth the journey – the rainforest retreat is a homestay on a family owned organic plantation called the Mojo Plantation. At one of the highest elevations in India, the Mojo plantation receives a ton of rainfall and has a much milder climate, allowing a vast number of crops to be grown. The two owners are a couple of Ph.D biologists and their daughter, who left their urban life to explore sustainable farming and a more harmonious way of life. They were incredibly cool people and the owner (Sujata) spent the first day giving us a tour of their crops and teaching us about the rainforest ecosystem, biodiversity and the myriad of benefits of organic farming. It was mind-blowingly awesome, and we spent most of the afternoon harvesting vanilla and coffee beans.

Our second day we took a long trek up to a viewpoint on the ridge, where we could see the whole area surrounding us. Hiking back we came across two rat snakes intertwined; at first we were told they were mating, only to find out later that it was in fact two males fighting. Typical. That afternoon, we visited a small school in the nearby village. There were only 8 students there, but we taught them a little about Canada, sang songs and gave them some of the teddy bears, school supplies and tennis balls we brought with us. That night we had a fantastic meal and saw a slideshow presentation by Sujata showing us more of the biodiversity and talking about the connections and interdependence between every living thing on their plantation.

On our third day we hiked across rice paddies and lower farm fields to a temple called the Sacred Grove. The afternoon was spent doing ‘tea plucking’ and learning about how coffee is processed. On our final day in the rainforest we took a bus to a nearby river where we had a picnic and spent the day swimming and enjoying our last day of holiday before hitting the books in Mysore.

On our way to Mysore, we stopped at the Golden Temple, a temple for Tibetan Monks taking refuge from communist persecution. We’re spending three weeks here in Mysore at a Christian Missionary/conference center called the Organization for the Development of People, where we’ll complete half our course requirements (the other half will be in Jaipur). Our rooms look reminiscent of a mental asylum: bars over the windows, hospital-like metal framed beds, fluorescent lights and heavy doors…but hey, we’re all here together!

So far, it’s been great here. The food is good and we’ve had some great lectures and a huge department/grocery store 100m away which was VERY exciting (we had yet to find any kind of grocery store or sizeable retail space in India). Our schedule is between 4-6 hours of class/day and the gates are locked at 9 pm but we have a lot of material to cover in just 15 days of classes! Yesterday, a monkey hopped in through the window of our classroom and made off with one girl’s bananas right from her bag, I’m assuming that’s why we have bars over our window but it was quite hilarious to see.

This afternoon, Devon Peter and I ventured to the town center to explore and get our bearings around here. After a chaotic experience at the post office trying to send Devon’s mail (think hordes of people crowding around one open service desk ten minutes before closing time, with no concept of a line and all yelling at the clerk), a rickshaw driver stopped us in our tracks (as many people do), to ask where we’re from. He proceeded to tell us how much he loves ice hockey and thinks cricket is a waste of a sport and insisted on showing us around ‘his India’.

We climbed into his souped-up auto rickshaw and he introduced himself as ‘Master Blaster’ and proceeded to crank up Bob Marley as he swerved through all these back-alley roads, narrowly avoiding cows chickens dogs and pedestrians. We passed three boys packed onto one bicycle…the last one was holding two chickens, I have no idea how they did it. We went to visit a friend of Master Blaster’s incense shop, where we were ushered inside. A woman was rolling incense sticks and she showed me how to roll the coal over the bamboo stick, telling me she rolls about 7,000 sticks per day. We ventured through some spice and produce markets before heading back to the center for dinner.

That concludes my tales – for now. Life will settle down for the next few weeks while we stick our noses to the grindstone but I’m sure there will be more adventures to come…India has not ceased to amaze, confuse, shock and inspire me!